Abstract

Multinational oil and gas production industries in Nigeria have the mandate to produce hydrocarbons. There is usually an Agreement that exists between Multinationals and Federal Government of Nigeria known as Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) or Joint Operating Agreement (JOA). Shell Petroleum Development Company, Total Exploration and Production Company and Nigerian Agip Oil Company are three majors of Multinational Oil and Gas companies in Nigeria. These Multinational Oil and Gas industries expect safe environment (social and ecological) to operate optimally. Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (TEPNG) introduced MoU as strategic leadership relationship model for host communities to accept and provide her with safe operating environment. It delivers this strategy of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) through community projects delivery where impactful enumerated projects would be nominated by stakeholders who also promised Freedom to operate (FTO) in the MoU and or addition to TEPNG Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes. Objectives of research were to evaluate Acceptability and Functionality of company’s CSR and ability of TEPNG to provide safe operating environment as FTO as promised. TEPNG maintained leadership in corporate social responsibility among other Multinational competitors. MoU and CSR define Industries stakeholders’ management style in Nigeria. Research studied water projects delivery and maintenance in 16 producing communities. Purposive and random samplings were used to select 210 respondents. Questionnaire, Interviews, Personal observations and photography were data collection methods. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis. Results presented in percentages, charts and pictures. Likert scale was used to quantify degree of Sustainability.

Results revealed TEPNG delivered water projects as enshrined in Mou. Awareness and Acceptability of projects that recorded 99% and 86% respectively were demonstrated as key elements of sustainability. Stakeholders (Host communities) of Multinational Oil industry did not meet their obligations as agreed in the MoU. Prevailing scenario created fights and militancy among cult groups. Payment for most CSR activities completed without delivery of projects as projects were to be delivered by host communities’ vendors. This situation threatened CSR projects Sustainability and therefore calls for management strategic review of the model to avoid industry reputation constantly going down. Concluded that TEPNG CSR could not deliver Freedom to Operate as declared by 60% of the respondents. Recommended that TEPNG should educate stakeholders through regular planned engagements like Open fora and town-hall meetings. CSR projects’ maintenance should be left for community youths and Periodic evaluation should be institutionalized to enhance Sustainability of Community development projects including agriculture. The study exposed that SUSTAINABILITY is driven by PEOPLE to achieve ENVIRONMENTAL and ECONOMIC benefits and should be given priority position in the sustainability equation.

Keywords: Community Development Projects, Corporate Social Responsibility, Freedom to Operate, Memorandum of Understanding, Sustainability

SSRN Rankings

About SSRN

We use cookies to help provide and enhance our service and tailor content.By continuing, you agree to the use of cookies. To learn more, visit our Cookies page.
This page was processed by aws-apollo4 in 0.188 seconds